Salesians provide job opportunities for Women in Northeastern India

A Salesian center, the Anma Integrated Development Association (AIDA), organized a series of training sessions to improve employment opportunities for Northeastern India's youth, especially women.

AIDA conducted the training in five villages, focusing on mushroom cultivation and food processing for women in self-help groups at the Don Bosco Campus in Dimapur, Nagaland's commercial capital.

During the training, unemployed youth and women received skills training, and self-help groups were set up to help women find work. The women received hands-on training and met with different departments and organizations to share information in a real-work environment.

The Mushroom Development Foundation of Guwahati, Assam, supported mushroom cultivation training at the Mushroom Farmers' Club in Bade village. An event was held at the Ministry Learning Center on meat and pickle processing.

In the mushroom training, 50 participants learned about building houses, preparing straw, incubating and spawning mushrooms, and casing soil.

Twenty-seven participants in the food processing training learned about food quality control, quality assurance, and preservation.

Father Timothy Ploch, interim director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, said, "Salesian missionaries in India and around the globe provide educational programs for women so they can find employment and become self-sufficient, which aids their families and communities.”

Professional training and workforce development services are highly valued in India, home to 1.3 billion people (18 percent of the world's population). By 2024, India is expected to overtake China as the world's most populous country, according to the World Economic Forum.

Despite having the largest youth population in the world, India has yet to capitalize on it, leaving about 30 percent of that population unemployed, uneducated, or untrained.

AIDA works to enhance the rural quality of life through direct interventions in over 300 villages and our partner network in over 1000 villages.

The fundamental strategy of AIDA is community participation through the promotion of community-based organizations and the nurturing of leaders at the grassroots level.

Interventions by their professional and technical teams towards more secure livelihoods. This includes awareness creation, skill building, linkages, and support for eco-friendly and improved agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, responsible use of natural resources, promotion of savings and thrift, and individual and group micro-enterprises. Groups work together to address primary education, adult literacy, health and sanitation, social harmony, solidarity, gender, and rights.

Through the development of community capacity and commitment to prevention and management, their health professionals address issues related to primary health care.

They also advocate for advocacy and linkages with district authorities, daycare centers for children, immunization, and health training camps.